


Kerosene and Open Flame

by rhetoricalrogue



Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, F/M, Mild Language, Slice of Life, Smoking, juvenile delinquency, zoe dropping some backstory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:48:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24262345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhetoricalrogue/pseuds/rhetoricalrogue
Summary: What happens when two people who don't do Feelings accidentally fall head first into them without knowing it. A collection of Mason/Zoe ficlets.
Relationships: Female Detective/Mason (The Wayhaven Chronicles)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 70





	1. Everyone was Seventeen Once

**Author's Note:**

> Zoe gets a call to investigate an abandoned building on the outskirts of town. Mason decides to ride along. Set sometime in the "several days later" pockets of time in Book 2 before the main plot starts up.
> 
> I'm over at [Tumblr](https://rhetoricalrogue.tumblr.com/)! Come say hi!

“Trouble at the old Baker Place.” Tina didn’t waste words when she saw her old partner come back from her lunch break. “Looks like it’s the usual suspects.”

Zoe sighed and brushed off a few sandwich crumbs from the scarf she was wearing. “Well, shit,” she grumbled. “Think they’re still there?”

“Hard to say. This time of day? It’s a fifty-fifty split.” Tina glared at her desk, the paperwork in her inbox overflowing onto the rest of the scattered mess on the surface. “This is just what I needed. Not like we could hire somebody to fill in positions or anything, let’s just leave the station shorthanded while…”

“While they move someone’s partner up to Detective to fill in a void, you mean?”

Tina winced. “That wasn’t what I meant and you know it." She sighed. "I just wish they would, I don’t know, reopen applications for the police academy or something. I miss having a partner.”

Zoe smirked. “If you ever get lonely, there’s always Officer Friedman.”

They both broke out into laughter as the muted sounds of some game Douglas was playing on his phone stopped for a brief moment. “What? What did I miss?” he asked, scooting his chair away from the reception desk and closer to where he could see the two of them hanging out near Tina’s workstation.

“Nothing, it’s nothing.” Waving him off, Zoe reached down and grabbed a backpack she knew Tina kept in an unused bottom drawer of her file cabinet. “I’ll get this one, you wrangle your paperwork.”

“You’re a lifesaver.”

“I know it.” She went into her own office to pick up a can of pepper spray to add to her belt in case she needed it and double checked that her phone was fully charged. “I’ll call within the hour with what I find. Give me a ring if I don’t call in an hour and a half, okay?”

“You sure you want to go by yourself? It’d be just like the good old days.”

She shook her head. “Nah, I’m good.” Zoe just happened to look out the glass front doors to find a familiar leather jacketed figure leaning against one of the cars in the parking lot. Pulling the backpack on, she pulled her ponytail out from where it had gotten stuck under one of the straps. “Something tells me I’m going to have company after all.”

Tina whistled behind her once she got a good look at what Zoe’s eyes were trained on. “Tell you what, I’ll call you in  _ two  _ hours.”

“Tina!”

“Come on! I’m just saying, if I had Mr. Tall, Dark, and Surly basically taking  _ my  _ clothes off with his eyes every time we met up, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to get back to the office, if you know what I mean.”

The blush that Zoe could feel go up to the tips of her ears only made Tina snicker even harder. “Bite me, Poname,” she grumbled as she pushed the doors open.

“I won’t, but he might!”

* * *

“Aren’t you a little too old for school?” Mason asked, gesturing to her backpack. He gave a lazy, appreciative glance at the detective as she pushed the glass doors of the office harder than necessary, the afternoon sunlight catching on her ink-dark hair and highlighting a blush that stained her cheeks.

If he were a more poetic man, he’d declare the sight before him breathtaking. Luckily, he thought, that was more Nate’s specialty. Mason was more than happy to be content with the fact that the Detective’s pants showcased her shapely backside and that the shirt underneath the leather jacket she always wore was cut low enough that he could catch a glimpse of whatever lacy bra she had on. Whatever easy flirting they had was enough for him, even if it was frustrating that after a two-month absence they hadn’t had a chance to move past the innuendo stage due to never having a moment alone.

Zoe Dawson was an itch that had somehow gotten under his skin and _damn_ , he wanted to scratch that itch. 

She rolled her eyes and tugged at the straps defensively. “I’ve got a scene to look into, I need it to collect evidence.” 

He fell into step with her, their long legs eating up the pavement as they made their way down the block towards a service station. “Where’s your piece of shit car?”

She stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets. “My piece of shit car is in the shop getting an oil change. I’m not too keen on walking all the way out of town towards the old Miller building, so I’m grabbing something else.”

The _something else_ turned out to be a motorcycle that looked as if it had seen far better days. “You make a habit of riding crappy old junk?”

She rolled her eyes as she waved at the mechanic and walked the bike out of the storage bay. “I dunno, I’m talking with you, aren’t I?”

That caused him to blink before giving her a slow, _I’ll give you that one_ type smile. “Touché, Sweetheart. Though by my recollection, you haven’t ridden me. Yet.”

“The key word is  _ yet _ , Sunshine.” Zoe slung a leg over the bike and settled into the seat. “You hopping on back, or are you going to meet me there?”

His cigarette clung to his lip. “Who said I was going with you?”

There was a brief moment where Zoe swore she felt her stomach dip in disappointment, but she shoved it aside by tugging on the helmet that had been hooked onto the handlebars. “Whatever, suit yourself.” Switching on the bike, she revved the motor a few times mostly for show and made a production of checking gauges so she wouldn’t have to watch Mason walk away when she felt a weight behind her.

“So, we going, or what?” he asked, his arm curling around her waist.

Grateful that the helmet hid her smile, then irritated at herself for smiling in the first place, Zoe pulled out of the garage’s driveway and headed down the street. “Yeah, we’re going.”

* * *

“Where the hell are we going anyway?” 

Zoe had stopped the bike after they had turned onto a gravel road lined with trees, explaining that the condition was too washed out to risk eating dirt if the tires went one way and they went another. “The Miller building.” She pointed up the road and Mason could vaguely make out what looked like a rooftop peeking above the treeline roughly a mile away. “It used to be a sawmill back in the day, then once the mill closed, it was vacant for a few decades until some businessman decided to turn it into a bakery.” She stepped around some rocks that had broken up from out of the road and tugged on the straps to her backpack. “Then  _ that  _ closed, mostly due to some serious lack of safety regulations and poor management. It’s been empty ever since.”

“So what was the call about?”

“Oh, big, important things.” Pushing a branch from an overgrown bush out of the way, she winked. “The school reported some kids they’ve been having trouble with. Rumor has it that they’re using the place as a spot to do the usual stupid teen shit, mainly get drunk or high and have awkward sex with a high risk of getting tetanus thrown in.”

“Are you shitting me? That’s what they use the police for out here?”

“What can I say, it’s a small town.”

Mason pulled a cigarette from the pack he fished out of his jacket. “You don’t fucking say.”

“Sorry, Cupcake. Some days just aren’t filled to the brim with danger and supernatural intrigue.” She tipped her chin towards the cigarette he was already sticking in his mouth. “Bum a smoke?”

“Nope, smoked the last one.” Mason shoved a clearly full pack of cigarettes back into an inner jacket pocket and flicked his lighter. He exhaled, smoke obscuring his face. “Sorry.”

“You’re being a dick.”

“And your lungs don’t regenerate like mine do, so deal.”

“Might as well share, I’m getting secondhand smoke anyway.”

Mason rolled his eyes and flicked the cigarette to the ground. He took a moment to grind it out with the heel of his boot before continuing on their walk. “Happy?”

“Give me twenty bucks and I will be.” Zoe raised an eyebrow at his puzzled expression. “Littering fee, first witnessed offense. Any future offenses make the fine go up twenty extra dollars per infraction.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake…” He scowled for a brief second before flashing her a wolfish grin. “I’m sure we could come to an agreement, Detective.”

Zoe’s smile mirrored his. “Oh, and what are you suggesting?” She slowed their pace, allowing him to enter into her personal space. Even though spring was starting up, there was still a faint chill to the air and the heat radiating off him was as welcome as it was thrilling.

Mason caught her eye. “Surely I could do some…” He licked his lip and leaned in closer. “ _ Community service _ for you.”

The scrape of wood against the back of her jacket made her wonder just when they had wandered off the trail they had been walking on. She bit her lip, enjoying the low, near-inaudible groan it pulled from him as he crowded her, his forearm resting against the tree she found herself leaning on. “I don’t know,” she teased. “You look like you’re a repeat offender. I may just have to take you in.”

“You brought your handcuffs? It's not even my birthday.”

She tipped her head to the side to give him room to place a kiss against her jawline. “I was thinking more on the lines of a stun gun.”

Goosebumps broke out and the laugh that rumbled across her skin made her shiver. “And here I haven’t even told you what my safe word was yet, Sweetheart.”

While it would have been the easiest thing to sink into the haze of arousal Mason could stir up within her, Zoe regrettably nudged at his chest to let her up, her fingers purposely slowly running down his body until they rested at the waistband of his jeans. “We’re not going to catch truant kids like this,” she gasped, the other hand that she’d buried into his hair tightening and making him groan.

He retaliated with a barely gentle nip at her earlobe that earned him another tug of his hair. “Maybe we'll stay here, give them an educational show.” 

“Somehow I don’t think the local school board would appreciate it.” Giving another sigh, she untangled herself from Mason and started off down the trail. “Coming?”

“In another five minutes and I might’ve.”

Her eyebrow quirked as she smirked at him. “Only five? How disappointing.”

Mason felt blood rush to his cheeks, but he scoffed to cover the sudden embarrassment. “Whatever. Let’s go catch some kids. If we’re lucky, we can mess around with them, make them think the place is haunted or something.”

Zoe watched as Mason stomped ahead of her, his grumbling barely audible. After not seeing him for months after the whole mess with Murphy, it was good to see that the tension that was between them hadn’t lessened a bit.

“I know you like staring at my ass, Zo, but we’re losing daylight.”

Smirking at the use of her nickname, Zoe shook herself out of her stupor and jogged up to catch up with him.

* * *

“I’m not hearing anything.” Mason tilted his head towards the entrance. “Some birds, maybe a few rats, but no horny teens.”

“Damn.”

“Guess this was a wasted trip.”

Zoe looked around. The main doors were still locked shut with a rusting link of chain, but the tall glass windows lining the front had long since been broken in. “I still have to go in and do a sweep. There may be some evidence to collect.” Covering her fist with the sleeve of her jacket, she swiped at the edges of a window frame to clear it of any jagged glass before climbing in. The interior of the building was old, not as old as the Farris Warehouse on the opposite side of town, but it was getting to the same level of disrepair. Kudzu had taken hold in the reception area and Zoe had a brief moment of déjà vu, thinking back to when she was a small child and school trips to the bakery had been a yearly highlight. Pulling the flashlight she carried out of her belt holster, she made a sweep behind the crumbling reception desk.

Mason picked through the rubble a few feet away from her as they made their way through the reception area to the main operation section. “What do you think we’re going to find?” 

Zoe kicked at the remnants of a campfire in what had probably been a staff break room. “Probably nothing. It looks... _ ah _ !”

There was a blur before Mason materialized next to her. “What? Are you hurt?”

She knelt and fished a duffel bag that had been stuffed underneath a molding sofa. “Jackpot.” Unzipping it, she made a disappointed noise at the contents.

“Wow. Wayhaven’s truly a hive of criminal activity.” The deadpan comment behind her shoulder made her roll her eyes, but she had to agree with him. 

“Okay, so skipping school to drink an entire bottle of cooking wine isn’t quite the peak of juvenile delinquency. Kids these days.” She set the empty bottle aside and picked up the unopened pack of cigarettes. “Yet it’s a vital clue.”

He leaned against a rusted out water fountain. “So, you gonna fill me in, or am I gonna wait in suspense?”

Plastic crinkled as she opened the pack and tapped out a cigarette. “Margie Hammond is taking care of her grandson while his parents are out of the country for work. Her chicken marsala is one of the most coveted recipes in the crafting club when they meet up once a week for potluck and she makes sure to stock her pantry with enough ingredients so she won’t run out. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t keep track of her wine bottles and it’d be easy to take one without her noticing.” She balanced a cigarette on her lip before digging in her back pocket for a lighter Mason hadn’t noticed her carrying. He watched as she closed her eyes at the first drag, then exhaled in a cough of smoke.

“And this is why I don’t share my smokes with you.”

Zoe flipped him off as she coughed, but took another drag. “Fuck off, I wasn’t expecting the cherry flavor.” She stood and offered him the pack, but he shook his head and plucked the cigarette hanging off her lip instead.

“Shit, you’re right. This  _ is  _ awful.” He made a face as he crushed it on the peeling linoleum floor. “So what now?”

“Well, seeing as there’s no kids to fine for trespassing and truancy, I go back to the office to file a report that nothing was found. Then I head over to the grocery store where Frank Hammond works as a stock boy and let him know that the Miller building is hazardous to his health and he should probably steer clear of it for the time being.”

He tipped his head. “What? No bringing him in?”

She shook her head. “He’s _seventeen_. His parents aren’t currently in the picture and his grandma isn’t the best at keeping up with company.” She frowned and tapped out another cigarette, making a face at the flavor but still smoking it. “I get where he’s coming from.”

Zoe had been the same, dodging the sitters and caretakers that Rebecca had hired over the years in favor of sneaking out at night to hang out with friends in one of the many abandoned buildings dotting the countryside or to stalk in the darkness alone. She looked around the factory floor as they left the break room. Many of the broken windows there were of her doing, teenage anger flaring bright as she screamed in frustration at missing a mother who was never around.

Mason looked at her as she seemed lost in her thoughts. The late afternoon sunlight filtered in through the holes in the roof and the broken windows along the wall, casting dappled shadows across her face. “Come on. Case is closed, let’s get out of here.” He tipped his chin towards the cigarette she was smoking. “And life’s too damn short to be ruining your lungs with crap like that.”

Zoe blinked and hid her introspection with a snort. “Not for you, it isn’t,” she said, grinding the cigarette out on the skeleton of a nearby converter belt, the nylon belt long since rotted away. She turned to head towards the entrance, but then stopped. “Speaking of crap…”

“What?”

She grinned. “Come with me. I just remembered something.” She turned on her heel and wound her way through the production lines, leading Mason up a rickety set of metal stairs to the second floor. Rattling the locked door handle to what had probably been a manager's office, her smile turned into a wide grin. “Ooh, this looks good.”

“Gonna clue me in?”

Zoe crouched down so she was eye level with the lock. “Scratches, but looks like nobody’s been able to bust in.” She pulled a slim case out of her inner jacket pocket and opened it to display a rather impressive lock pick kit. “Cooking sherry, grandma’s cigs, not even bothering to break a window to get into a locked room...kids these days have no sense of style.”

Mason gave an impressed whistle when the lock clicked open in a matter of seconds. “You know, when you said that you’d been in trouble with the law before, something told me it was some petty shit, not being a full blown delinquent.”

“To be fair,” she said, opening the door and walking in. “I never got caught for  _ this _ . It was the arson charge that got me in the end.”

His eyes widened. “You don’t go saying stuff like that and then not follow up.”

She winked at him as she opened up a file cabinet at the back of the office. “Maybe some other time. Ah ha! Yes!” Zoe gave a triumphant little dance as she pulled out a nearly full bottle, the liquid sloshing as she raised it up to the light. “The last time my friends and I were here, we stashed this. Unfortunately for Past Zoe, we never came back, but fortunately for us _now_ , we have an intact bottle of fifteen year old aged rum to enjoy.” Unzipping her backpack, she stashed it away.

“Something tells me that you didn’t exactly buy that bottle of booze.”

“And knowing how to shoplift is  _ exactly  _ what makes me so good at catching them now.” She shrugged. “I never got caught for  _ that  _ either.” 

Mason advanced, crowding her against the rickety office desk in the center of the room. “My, my. Trespassing, truancy, theft. You were the regular bad girl, weren’t you?” He gripped her hips and boosted her up on the desk. “Shame you had to grow out of that.”

She bit her lip and wound her arms over his shoulders. “Who says I did?”

He let out a stuttered breath as he ran his nose against the line of her throat. In a move that puzzled them both, he pressed a gentle, almost chaste kiss against the faint ridge of scars he found there before sighing.

“Mason?”

He pressed his palms on the desk and pushed away from her, his warmth instantly missed. “Awkward sex with a high chance of tetanus, remember? Come on, let’s get you back to the station.” He shouldered the bag she had left near the file cabinet and made his way out. “Maybe on the way back you can drop some more tidbits of Bad Girl Zoe on me.”

“Ugh, please tell me that your interest in my rap sheet isn’t an attempt at dirty talk.”

His eyes darkened. “Trust me, Sweetheart. You’ll know when I start talking dirty to you.” He leaned against the desk with her, his hip pressed against the outside of her thigh. “Maybe I just want to get to know you better.” He reached out and pushed a stray bit of hair that had escaped her ponytail out of her face, the move making her shiver in a way that had nothing to do with the chill in the air. “Besides…”

She caught the mischievous gleam in his eye. “Don’t you dare say it.”

“What? Arson? That’s _hot_.” And just like that, whatever tender moment was replaced with their usual banter. 

Zoe hopped off the desk and walked out of the office. They kept their usual companionable silence up as they walked out of the building and made their way back to where they had stashed her bike.

“Hey Mason?” Zoe asked as they came up to the police station’s parking lot.

“Yeah?”

She gestured towards the backpack he had slung over his shoulders for the ride back. “Maybe you should hold onto that? You know, at least until I’m off work. It wouldn’t exactly look good if I went out to investigate a complaint, came back with a bottle of booze for evidence and then left with it after my shift was over.”

“No, that doesn’t exactly scream out Friendly Neighborhood Detective.” He unzipped the backpack and took it out to examine the bottle. “This is one of the cheapest, shittiest brands of rum, you know that, right?”

She huffed and snatched the empty backpack from him. “Like I said, I was seventeen once. Some of us weren’t born with an impeccable taste in alcohol.”

“Still, thanks. I’m sure it aged into a better gift.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m  _ loaning  _ it to you, there’s a difference.” She shifted her weight onto a leg and worried her lip. “Though I don’t share my ill-gotten booze with just anyone, you know.”

He smirked. “Then I’ll keep it safe for you. Maybe you can invite me back to your place for…”

“A nightcap?”

His smirk turned downright wolfish. “Is that what they’re calling it nowadays?”

She laughed, the sound doing something strange to his insides. “Something like that.” They both jumped when Douglas shouted at her from the station door, yelling something about her having a phone message. “I’d better get going.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll give you a call,” she gestured towards the bottle he held. “For a drink.”

He watched as she practically bounced up the station stairs, grateful no one was around to see the lopsided smile that had fixed itself to his face. “Looking forward to it.”


	2. Inside Scoop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Very minimal spoilers for Book 2. This is set within the span of time between the training session (and interrupted makeouts) at the warehouse and the initial Agency meeting with Falk.

* * *

“You could have gotten your own order,” Zoe grumped, half-watching as Mason swiped a fry from the paper basket in front of her.

“I’m not hungry.” He grabbed another fry and grinned at her. “For food, that is.”

“Ugh.” The noise was more for show and both of them knew it, Zoe laughing as she kicked at his foot from underneath the tiny wooden table they were seated at. It was a nice day, if a bit overcast, and she had decided to walk downtown to one of the little popup food trucks that were trying to make it in Wayhaven. Haley’s brother had one that made some really good burgers, and she let him use her parking spaces to set up shop during the lunch crowd. It was good to get out of the office and away from thoughts of the carnival and supernaturally-induced diseases. Bumping into Mason and him accepting her invitation was icing on the cake.

It  _ wasn’t  _ a date, she told herself as she finished the last bite of her burger. It was just a lunch with the guy who happened to be responsible for the best sex she’d ever had in her entire life. No big deal.

“You’re thinking about something pretty hard,” he commented, reaching out and pushing up the sunglasses that were threatening to slip down her nose. “Wanna share?”

She shook her head and reached for her drink, the tart lemonade soothing her suddenly dry throat. Feelings where Mason was involved were supposed to be simple: they had sex, they had a damn good time, that was it. If the interrupted moment in the training room was anything to go by, he probably wouldn’t be against the idea of doing it again. 

What  _ wasn’t  _ simple was the fact that her chest constantly felt tight when she thought of him and she caught herself smiling at absolutely nothing during the middle of the day, her spaced-out thoughts always going back to him. Tina had been quick to pick up on her mood change and had been absolutely  _ insufferable  _ about trying to pry details out of her.

Well, Mason wasn’t the only one in this agreement -  _ not  _ a relationship,  _ definitely  _ not a relationship - who could deflect with seduction. “Maybe I was thinking about what happened in my apartment a few days ago.” She pitched her voice low and slowly ran her boot against the side of Mason’s calf.

He quirked an eyebrow and grinned. “Oh  _ really _ ? You know, if you want a repeat performance, all you have to do is ask.”

Zoe mirrored his lazy smile and leaned closer to him. “Is that right? You think that you’re... _ up _ for it?”

The low growl he gave as he reached over to tip her sunglasses off and out of the way made goosebumps break out over her arms. “Sweetheart, you should know that I’m  _ always  _ -” Whatever he was going to say next was interrupted by the click of a camera, causing both of them to jump.

“Well, well, well,” Bobby drawled. “Guess the rumor mill is running at full speed.”

Zoe put her hand on Mason’s arm, all but feeling the irritated tension radiate off him in waves. “Bobby,” she sneered. “I thought I smelled something unpleasant. I thought it was a sewer leak.”

“Oh ha ha.” He checked the screen on his phone and made an approving noise. “This would make a good front page picture! I can see the headline now, Outside Agency Entanglement: is our Detective investigating a romance?”

“Isn’t that a little long for the Lifestyle section? You know, the one that’s at the very back of the paper and only runs once a week, if you’re lucky?”

“Angel, you wound me. Why don’t you stab me in the heart while you’re at it?”

Her eyes narrowed. “As if you  _ had  _ a heart. And you should know something about stabbing, seeing as you’re so good at the whole backstabbing thing.” She balled up the remnants of her lunch and stalked away to the nearest trash can.

Bobby cupped his hand over his mouth and yelled after her. “Sweetness, it’s been years. You really should let it go.” He looked over to Mason, who was staying out of the argument, but just barely. “Friendly word of warning, man to man. Zoe tends to carry grudges when you eventually break up.”

“Eventually?” 

Bobby, not reading the fact that Mason’s expressionless face hid murderous intent, continued. “She’s not a long distance type of girl, I’m just saying.”

“And maybe I’m not looking for a long time, just a good time.” Wood creaked as Mason dug his fingers around the edge of the bench he was still sitting on.

Bobby’s eyes widened. “Oh, so  _ that’s  _ how it is!”

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” Zoe asked, stomping back, her arms crossed over her chest as she glared at him. “Like pretend you actually have a career as a journalist?”

Mason stood up and glowered at him from Zoe’s side. “Yeah, fuck off already.”

For the first time since their conversation started, Bobby’s eyes narrowed. Zoe had a brief moment to relish hitting a sore spot when he shot back with “Looks like your mother was right about you.” He gestured towards Mason. “All you attract are low class bums and asshole scumbags.”

Zoe wasn’t sure if the growl she heard was from Mason or if she had done it. “Says the guy who used to date me.”

“Yeah, but I knew when to take out the trash.”

“Enough.” While he didn’t use his preternatural speed, Mason did move quick enough to get into Bobby’s personal space, one of his hands shooting out to grab the reporter’s phone, the other gripping the collar of his coat so hard that Bobby stumbled as he was jerked forward. “Insult Zoe one more time and I’ll rip your tongue out with my bare hands and beat you to death with it.” 

“Who the hell do you think you are?”

“Someone not to be trifled with.” He stiffened when he felt hands on his arm.

“Mason, he isn’t worth it,” Zoe said. She stared, watching the barest hint of red bled out of Mason’s eyes and the smallest bit of sharpened fangs quickly retract. Had she not known to look, she would have missed it. “Let’s go.” 

Mason narrowed his eyes at Bobby and purposely went through his phone to delete any record of the picture he had just taken of them. Dropping it on the pavement, he gave a tiny shrug at the sharp cracking noise of a freshly broken screen. “Oops.”

He let Zoe lead him away, watching as her brows furrowed and she took a few breaths to calm herself. “You okay?”

She blinked. “I should be asking you that.”

Mason shrugged. “He’s a piece of shit.”

Zoe huffed out a brief laugh. “You don’t have to tell me that twice.” She gave him a sideways glance. “Thank you. For standing up for me.”

He sneered. “Asshole had no right talking to you the way he did.” He gave her a look. “Any of the other guys would have done the same.”

She stared at him for a moment, knowing when someone was trying to downplay something. “Yeah, I know. But they weren’t there and you were, so thanks.”

They were quiet as they walked back to the station, Zoe purposely taking the long way back, partly to blow off any remaining steam and partly to extend the time she got to spend in Mason’s company. 

“So, creepy reporter is a creepy ex.” Mason dug in his pockets for a cigarette. “You could do a lot better.”

She grabbed the pack he still had and tapped one out, ignoring his protest. “Which is why he’s an ex in the first place.”

He held out his lighter to her before lighting his own cigarette. “Still, I don’t really see the two of you together in the first place.”

Zoe took a drag and slowly let it out in a cloud of smoke in front of her. “It was a stupid mistake that I’ll not be repeating. Let’s leave it at that.” She glanced at him, noticing how his body language started to close off from her. “For now, at least.” 

He took a deep breath and shoved his hands in the pockets of his jacket. “Whatever.”

Not wanting Bobby to ruin what had previously been a nice afternoon, Zoe flicked her cigarette into the ashtray attached to one of the trash cans lining the street. She gave him a look and with a sigh, Mason did the same. “So, I think we were talking about something important before we were rudely interrupted,” she prompted. Impulsively, she wrapped her arm around his and leaned her head on his shoulder as they walked. He stiffened for a brief moment before wiggling out of her grasp and in a move that surprised her, draped his arm around her shoulder.

“I  _ think  _ we were talking about me showing up at your place.” The playful smirk was back and he tipped his head so he could briefly press his cheek against the crown of her head. “Unless you’re up for somebody walking in on us again.”

She laughed. “Let’s try to keep that to a minimum, okay?” She almost sighed in disappointment when they reached the station’s front steps. “Well, this is my stop.”

He rocked on his heels. “Looks like it.”

Suddenly shy, she pushed her hair behind her ear and bit at her lip. “Call me?”

Mason’s eyes zeroed in on her mouth. “I’ll do one better.” Using the same speed as before, he pulled her close to him, his hand warm at the small of her back. She barely had any time to take a breath before he was kissing her, his mouth slanted and his hand buried in her hair.

He swallowed the pleased little noises she made, grinning against her lips as her hands slid over his chest. “I’ll see you tonight,” he told her, his voice low and full of promise. He nudged her nose with his before stepping back, smirking as she wobbled towards him before righting herself.

“Looking forward to it.”

He winked at her before turning. “You and me both, Sweetheart.”

Zoe watched as he disappeared around the corner, her lips still tingling from his kiss. “I’m five seconds from using the fire extinguisher on you.”

She jumped and whirled around to see Tina staring at her with a shit-eating grin going from ear to ear. “Tina!”

“Shame on you both, there are small children in public! Their poor innocent eyes!”

Zoe rolled her eyes. “Last I heard, Douglas was…” she sobered, thinking about the last time she had seen Douglas, his body riddled with sickness.

“You’re just lucky that he’s off on some educational development training. I swear, these past few months he’s been awful with whatever little crush he has on you.”

“Yeah, awful.” Shaking her head, she made her way inside the station. “Come on, we’ve got work to do.”

“And if I catch you daydreaming, I’ll know why!”

“As if I would.” Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Taking it out, she couldn’t stop the soft smile that spread across her lips even if she wanted to.

_MASON JAR_  
_I get off patrol at 9. Be at your place by 10._  


She typed her response while walking to her office.  _ Don’t keep me waiting too long or that’s the only thing that’s getting off.  _ She noticed the little … bubble pop up almost instantly, but decided to let whatever he replied back with sit, or else she really wouldn’t get anything done that afternoon. Wiggling her mouse to wake up her computer screen, she keyed in her password and brought up the case she had been working on before lunch.

Besides, it wouldn’t hurt his ego to play a little hard to get every now and then.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place directly after the last chapter. Zoe's backstory gets more light shed on it, Bobby gets called an asshole multiple times, and feelings are decidedly ignored on both sides.

It was well after midnight and no sign of Mason. Zoe ran her brush through her hair as she walked through her apartment, thinking it had been dumb of her to actually look forward to spending time with him. Lunch had been an anomaly, to want more when he clearly didn’t wasn’t like her.

 _It’s just sex_ , he’d said before and normally she’d agree; Zoe had her share of no-strings, casual sexual experiences before and yet…

She tugged on a particularly bad snarl. Maybe it was because they worked closely together. She had a rule that she wouldn’t date co-workers for a reason, but it didn’t stop her from wanting to spend time with Mason that didn’t involve nudity.

Not that nudity was a _bad_ thing. He _was_ pretty to look at and it gave her a not-so little boost to her ego to recall that he’d liked what he'd seen of her too. She smirked as she flipped off the lights in the kitchen and living room, yawning as she made her way into her bedroom.

She’d taken three steps in when the hair at the back of her neck prickled and she felt that something was off. Brandishing her brush like a weapon, she scanned the room, her eyes zeroing in on the window and the shadow that was hunched on the fire escape outside.

“You always lurk outside women’s bedrooms?” she asked, pushing the window open and leaning against the frame.

Mason gave her a slow once-over, his lip curling up into a pleased smile. “You always answer the door in your underwear?” His smile turned into a leer as he stared at her legs. “Not that I’m complaining about the view.”

Zoe rolled her eyes and tugged at the hem of the faded t-shirt from some 5K she’d participated in several years ago. It was comfortable and one of her favorite things to sleep in, but it didn’t cover the pair of dark blue high-cut panties she wore. “Why are you here?” she asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

He regarded her silently for a beat. “Patrol got extended and Adam held a meeting after. I would have been here at ten like I said otherwise.” His hand went to his jacket where she knew he kept a pack of cigarettes, but then he paused, seemed to think better of it, and ran his hand through his hair instead. “Phone died or else I would have texted you.”

“Oh.” The spark of irritated anger she’d been nursing all evening faded as she slowly uncrossed her arms and pressed her weight against the wall. “So, is there a reason you didn’t use the front door like a normal person?”

Mason jerked his head towards the parking lot. “You’ve got a creep standing outside.”

Zoe looked out the window. Bobby’s car was pretty easy to identify, seeing as it had been her life’s work when she had been on regular patrol to make sure he got a parking ticket if he got even so much as his front bumper inside a fire zone or stayed a second longer than the parking limit sign allotted him. The security light in the parking lot illuminated the driver’s seat where she could dimly see the hazy outline of Bobby sitting, phone in hand as he made some notes. 

Sighing, Zoe glanced over at Mason. “From where I’m standing, it looks like there’s _two_ creeps outside. You coming in or are you gonna stay there for a while?” Without bothering to look to see if he would, she went to her vanity on the other side of the bedroom and sat down at the chair there to finish brushing out her hair.

“What’s _he_ doing here?”

She glanced at his reflection in her mirror, none too subtly checking him out as he pulled his long legs inside and ducked his head to clear the window. “He stopped by an hour ago with some questions. Click the bedside light off for me?”

Mason frowned at the fact that Zoe’s ex-boyfriend had been sitting outside for an entire hour, but he did as she asked. Not even a minute later, he heard a car start. “He’s leaving.” He pressed his palms against the glass and watched the red taillights of the reporter’s car disappear around the corner before reaching up and securely latching the window locks in place. 

“Figured he might as soon as he thought I was asleep.”

His frown turned into a scowl. “What sort of questions was he asking about?”

She set the brush aside and rested her elbow on her vanity. “Mostly about you and the rest of Unit Bravo. He doesn’t trust you, he thinks there’s some fishy government conspiracy going on, he absolutely dislikes _you_ in particular...want me to go on?”

“Probably shouldn’t have broken his phone.” Mason shrugged, but the tone of his voice was unrepentant, as was the smirk he threw at her as he spoke.

“No, he totally deserved that. It made _my_ day, at least.” She frowned. “Watch out for him; he may be an awful reporter when it comes to writing things up, but he has a nose for news and won’t let go of a lead once he smells a story. I don’t trust him further than I could throw him, which is why I make a habit of steering clear of the creep.”

Mason shed his jacket and sat on the edge of her bed. “So, nasty breakup?”

She sneered. “You could say that.” Moonlight spilled in through the window, illuminating the outline of Mason’s face. She could tell that he was curious, so she sighed and started brushing her hair again, if only so her hands had something to do. “I met him my first year of university in the big city. We were in the same English 101 class and…”

Mason stared at her back, her entire posture curled inwards as if protecting herself from the words she spoke. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Zoe straightened. “It isn’t that. It’s just that I was stupid and spiteful.” She turned in her chair so she could face him. “Before I left for school, Rebecca and I had a huge blowup fight. In retrospect, I know she meant well: I’d been in a relationship with this guy all through high school. He was a troublemaker and Rebecca swore up and down that he was a bad influence.” She let out a soft snort. “To be honest, between Harry and myself, I was probably the worst influence. But of _course_ , Rebecca didn’t want to admit that her daughter could do the things I got up to all on my own, it had to be someone else’s fault.” The last statement was tinged with a lifetime’s worth of bitterness, old anger flaring in her chest like a festering wound that never healed properly.

“Let me guess, she told you to focus on classes instead of boys?”

“Right in one. She pointed out my history of dating guys who were no good. Bobby was probably the most boring, bland guy I’ve ever met. He asked me to go to the campus coffee shop after class right before midterms started and the rest is history.”

It may have been pitch black save for the sliver of moonlight in her room, but Zoe could all but feel Mason’s eyes on her. She let out a little laugh. “Lesson learned: never put myself through misery to spite my mother. I wasted four years and a future career as a journalist because of my pride and _I’ll show her_ attitude.”

“You were going to be a journalist?” He got up and moved to sit at the foot of her bed, closer to where her vanity was.

She nodded. “It was a long time ago, a pipe dream. I’d study hard, push myself to make connections, then make it big somewhere, _anywhere_ that wasn’t Wayhaven.” Escaping small town living had once been a goal of hers, to go where no one knew who she was or judged her by who her parents were. The escape into anonymity was an intoxicating temptation, which was what had pushed her to make the grades and apply to the right schools more than a drive to make sure that Rebecca would come home and actually _see_ how hard she was working and maybe even say how proud she was of her daughter.

“But you’re still here.”

“Yeah.” Her eyes flicked down to her hands. “I guess I am.”

 _Sweetness, it’s been years._ Mason narrowed his eyes as he remembered the confrontation with Bobby earlier that afternoon. _You’re so good at the backstabbing thing._ “That asshole have anything to do with it?”

“In a way. We wound up dating all through university and we were both journalism majors. Bobby started slacking our last year, but somehow always pulled through with decent grades. Meanwhile, I was busting my ass and pulling all nighters to perfect my final paper before graduation. A few weeks before the term ended, I got called into my professor’s office.” Zoe clenched her fists. “Bobby was there too. Turns out that our final papers were identical. The best guess I had was that Bobby logged into my computer and stole my work while I was asleep whenever he stayed over.”

Mason sneered. “The fucker threw you under the bus?” 

“Pretty much, yeah. I could see that he had the professor snowed, so I got up and told him to fail my ass, I was done. The person who spent the better of four years teaching me to look at all angles of a story and check my sources sided with the jerk who stole my hard work without even asking me to prove my innocence. I didn’t want anything to do with a profession that could turn a blind eye just because someone could smooze their way to the top and get away with practically murder.” She let out a breath. “Which is where the arson charge comes in.”

Mason leaned forward. “You torched Bobby’s car?”

“No, the professor’s.” She pressed her lips together. “I didn’t mean to set the whole car on fire, but the courts didn’t see it that way. I flicked a lit cigarette into the passenger seat through a cracked window, thinking all it would do would burn the fake leather, but he had a stack of papers in there that caught. Next thing I knew, I was breaking the window to try to put the fire out, but the whole thing went up so fast. Campus security cameras caught the whole thing.”

“Still don’t get how you went from potentially going to jail to being town detective.”

Zoe crossed her arms in front of her chest and scowled. “Rebecca.” She let out a breath and tugged at her hair. “Turns out that throwing money at not-so-impartial judges meant that my sentence was turned over to serve at Wayhaven instead of a bigger prison. Then, as a favor to my late father, I got put on community service instead of actual jail time working as a police clerk. I never heard the end of it either.” Her scowl returned as she recalled the many lectures and fights that happened at home. Rebecca was finally paying attention to her, but the _I need to be able to trust you being alone so I can do my job_ wasn’t what twenty-two year old Zoe had needed to hear. It had been made clear to her that her mother cared more about her work than her child than ever before and that being the self-appointed warden for her daughter’s behavior had put an unfortunate crimp in whatever schedule Rebecca had for herself.

She shook her head to avoid lingering in bitter memories. “Turns out that I was good at filing papers and answering phones. Captain Sung and my dad had been close and I guess guilt at seeing his friend’s daughter potentially turn to a life of crime made him take me under his wing. He saw that I was making comments to the patrol officers and detectives about cases and saw my potential. He took to mentoring me on more than what I had been assigned to do and once my parole was up, he offered me a spot on the academy roster. I took it, and...well…” She spread her hands.

“The rest is history?”

“Yeah.” She tipped her head to the side, her hair sliding over her shoulder. “Sorry for dumping all that on you, I know that’s not what you came here for.”

Mason leaned back on his hands. “No, definitely wasn’t expecting it.” He was silent for a moment while he looked at her. “But thanks, for trusting me with your story.” As soon as he said it, Zoe’s entire body language seemed to relax from the defensive posture she had. Even if he hadn’t had preternatural vision, the smile she gave him would have lit up the entire room.

“It would have come out eventually, especially with Felix already trying to pry pieces out here and there, and I don’t have any shame sharing, but I’m still glad I could share it with you first.” She caught his eye and that light feeling in her chest that she had been trying to avoid any time that she thought of him was back. _It’s just sex_ , she reminded herself, forcibly shoving whatever it was down and away. _He doesn’t want more, so be happy with what you have._ “The icing on the cake is that while I found some success at home, Bobby ultimately couldn’t hack being a reporter in the big city and had so slink down into tiny Wayhaven where he can’t even break front cover news most of the time.”

Mason snorted. “Here’s to small victories.” He looked at her puzzledly. “So, which one am I, the low class bum or the asshole scumbag?”

Zoe rolled her eyes. “Neither. I’d have to say you’re an entirely different type of man that my mother was worried about me getting involved in.” She stood up and went over to him. “Prickly, grumpy vampires with cute asses weren’t exactly on the _do not date_ list.”

“Glad to hear of it. For the record, I’m definitely not in the same league as that jerk reporter.”

She made a disgusted noise. “That’s for damn sure. But enough about Bobby.” She moved to straddle his lap. “And _definitely_ enough about my mother.”

One of Mason’s hands went to her hip to stabilize her as she ground down on his lap, the other hand buried itself in her long, silken hair, earning a moan from her as his fingers massaged her scalp. He’d never seen her with her hair down before, not even when she was in the Agency’s sick bay recovering from the bite Murphy had inflicted, but he had to admit that he really liked it.

He smiled against her lips as he kissed her. “Whatever you want, Sweetheart.”

* * *

It should have been easy to roll out of bed once the first rays of light spilled out from Zoe’s apartment window, but Mason found himself wanting to stay where he was. Zoe was an enthusiastic partner, and after a short rest and a second go, they’d fallen into a sleep that had been one of the most restful nights Mason had experienced in a long time. He ran his fingertips over Zoe’s shoulder where she was curled up close to him, her head pillowed on his chest and her hair splayed out behind her like ink spilled from an overturned bottle. She made a soft mumble at the sensation, her leg moving to hook over his hip.

It wasn’t long before she stirred, her eyes blinking open a few times before she fully focused on him. “Hey.”

The sleepy smile on her face made him want something more than a quick morning tumble. “Hey.”

She turned her head to yawn, her hand sliding over his chest before moving up to tangle in his hair. “It’s too early to be awake.”

Mason had to chuckle at her irritated sounding grumble. “Sorry, I can’t tell the sun to slow down for you.” The noise she made and the way she tried to bury her face against his shoulder should _not_ have been as endearing as it was, but there it was. He watched, seemingly as if someone else was taking control of his body, as he pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. “What I _can_ do is get us some coffee.” He paused, remembering what she liked for breakfast. “Maybe even a croissant.”

Zoe snuggled closer, her lips pressing against the stubble at his jaw. “Wake me up nicely and I’ll even pay for it.”

He rolled them over so that he was on top, Zoe’s knees pressing gently against his sides. He took a moment to look at her, the pale pinks and gold of the horizon painting the room with soft light. The sight made Mason’s gut clench. _It’s just sex,_ he thought, shoving whatever feelings being stirred within him aside. _She doesn’t want more._

He kissed her, enjoying the way her lips moved against his. “Deal.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Book 2 spoilers. Written for the Wayhaven Week 2020 fandom event "tender" prompt. Sudden motherly interruptions put a halt on a semi-enjoyable not-date.

“Does it bother you?”

Zoe frowned as they walked, slowing down as they passed several groups of people. “What? The lights and the noise? I mean, a little, but that’s mostly because carnivals aren’t really my thing. Too many people around and too many opportunities to steal your things right out of your pockets.” She gave him a sideways glance. They’d been at the fairgrounds for over thirty minutes and she was ready to leave. “I’m more worried about you. We’ve been walking around for a while, you want to wander somewhere quieter?”

Mason shrugged. It was true that the saccharinely sweet smell of cotton candy mixed with the repetitive calliope sound being loudly broadcast over a speaker he couldn’t pinpoint was giving him a pounding headache, but time taken to get a breather away from the noise and grating smells that at times felt like nails raking over chalkboards only meant that they had to remain in them longer than he would like. “It’s fine.” He paused, eyes scanning the crowd ahead of them. “No, I meant the whispers. People noticing you’re with me.”

“Ah.” She stuck her hands into her jacket pockets and shrugged. “Not really?”

He rolled his eyes. “You sound so sure.”

“I mean we’re _supposed_ to be here on a date, so no, I don’t mind. People are probably more shocked to see me out with someone since I haven’t done the whole relationship scene in a while, plus this is a small town; there’s bound to be talk.”

Mason mirrored her body language. “That’s a damn shame.”

“Shame that I’m single, or shame that the good men of Wayhaven haven’t gotten to have the full Zoe Dawson experience?”

He snorted. “Good to see that you don’t have a fragile ego.”

They continued to walk, Zoe snagging a hot pretzel from a vendor partly as a way to blend in and partly because she was starving after not having anything to eat since lunch. She offered a bite to Mason, who shook his head. “So…”

He tapped out a cigarette, looked at the large group of children nearby, and put it back into the pack. “What?”

She looked at a bunch of mothers she recognized from doing school safety programs standing near the child-sized rides and waving to their kids as they passed them. As soon as they saw her looking in their direction, they gave nervous smiles and turned away, but not before doing a second glance in Mason’s direction. Zoe assumed they were feeling guilty about being busted for staring. “Your hearing is a lot better than mine. What’s the mood?”

“Happy go-lucky? I’m going out on a limb and guessing it’s normal for carnivals.” He absently rubbed at his forehead and while he didn’t say that the lights from the row of carnival games were bothering him, Zoe noticed him squinting and steered them down a less brightly lit avenue behind a few tents where they could still see what was going on around them.

“I was talking about, well, the scoop about _us_.” She gestured back towards the group of moms they had passed by. “You think we’ll win any popular couple awards by the end of the night?”

He raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t think you were the type to give a damn what anyone thought.”

“I don’t. It’s just idle curiosity, that’s all.” 

“Ah.” He smirked and stepped closer to her. “You know what they say about curiosity and cats, Detective.”

She grinned and closed the gap between them. “That satisfaction brought them back?”

“So, you’re thinking about me satisfying you?” He gave her a toothy smirk when she looped her arms over his shoulders to bring him closer, her breasts pressed against his chest tightly enough that he could all but feel her heartbeat against his own ribcage.

She shivered as his hand palmed her hip, his warmth sinking through to her skin. “The question should be, _could_ you?”

“Oh Sweetheart.” Mason ran the side of his nose against hers before moving to nip his teeth at her jawline. “You have no idea how -”

The crackle of the radio in both their earpieces made them jump apart. “If the two of you are done,” Rebecca stated, her voice stern. “There is a mission to get back to.”

Mason winked as Zoe scowled. “Yes ma’am,” he said, clicking on the radio at his collar. “We were just discussing…”

“ _That_ was a discussion?” Felix snickered. “It looked more like you were…”

“Deciding to head out to the fortune teller tent,” Zoe interrupted. “Which we were just leaving to go do!” Without thinking, she grabbed Mason’s hand and started walking away from behind the tents and back into the fairground proper.

“Hey, why the rush?” Mason tugged on her hand and deliberately slowed down the pace Zoe had set as they all but stalked through the crowds, pulling her back towards him. There was a flush high on her cheeks and one look told him that she hadn’t been embarrassed about being caught flirting.

She was _angry_. Mason didn’t need three guesses to know that it was because she couldn’t stand her mother telling her what to do.

“We’re here for a reason,” she replied, her tone clipped and posture rigid, almost as if she had slammed the relaxed, flirty side of her behind a thick barrier. “So let’s get on with it.”

Well. There went all the fun for the evening. “We’re heading that way, why rush?” He squeezed her hand and smirked at her. “Keep running around like that and people are going to think you’re not having a good time on this date.”

She sneered. “I thought you didn’t _do_ dates, Mason.” With that, she let go of his hand and continued to stalk away.

His temper almost let her, but then he saw how she curled into herself, her hands gripping her elbows so tightly that her fingernails bit into the fabric of her jacket. _Push people away hard and fast enough and they won’t be able to hurt you,_ he mused. _I got your signal, Zo._ “Maybe I don’t,” he said, his long legs closing the distance between them before they got back to the louder part of the fairgrounds. “Doesn’t mean that maybe I might want to try it once, though.”

Zoe snorted. “To see how the other half lives?”

“Something like that.”

She slowed down and sighed. Her shoulders were still tense when she brought a hand up to press her fingers against the bridge of her nose, but Mason could feel the anger and aggravation slowly drain away from her. “I’m sorry. You’re not the one I’m angry with, I was wrong to take it out on you.” She reached out and took hold of his hand, almost as if it were an extension to her apology. “It’s not your fault that she brings out the worst in me.”

He twined his fingers with hers. “Yeah, I can tell.” He gave her fingers a little supportive squeeze, much like she had when they first arrived. “Come on, the sooner we do this, the sooner we can get the hell out of here.”

Zoe laughed and squeezed his fingers back. She leaned against his arm as they walked, the fortune teller’s tent coming into view. “For the record, I really was looking forward to spending more time with you.”

He leered. “Looking to get me alone, Sweetheart?” He let go of her hand to drape his arm around her shoulder, tugging to bring her flush against the side of his body.

She rolled her eyes, but wrapped her arm around his waist to stay where she was. “Always, Sunshine.” She looked like she wanted to say something more, but decided against it in favor of tugging on the collar of his jacket and bringing him close enough to press a kiss against his cheek, her lips grazing the corner of his mouth.

“Not that I’m complaining, but what was that for?”

She reached up to wipe a smudge of dark red lipstick away from his cheek before resting her head against his shoulder. “For putting up with me when I’m being a moody asshole.”

“Oh? And what _else_ could I get for sticking around?” She couldn’t see his smirk, but she could all but hear it.

“I guess you’ll have to stick around and find out.” Giving him one last squeeze, she moved away and walked up to the tent. “Just so you know, I do more than kiss at the end of a first date if I like the guy I’m with.”

Zoe put a little saunter in her step as she walked towards the tent, smiling as the dark chuckle at her back almost seemed to wrap around her like an embrace. “I guess I better make sure you like me, then,” he told her, stopping next to her to read the placard near the entrance of the tent.

She set one of the nearby flowers into the designated bucket and they both watched as if by magic, the ties holding the tent flaps closed fell away. “Age before beauty.”

“You just want to check out my ass.”

“Every job has its perks.”

Mason grinned as he stepped inside the tent, his eyes scanning the interior. Even though he was supposed to be focused on the mission they were assigned to, he couldn’t help but let his focus stray back to Zoe as she moved behind him.

She caught his eye as she stood beside him and the small yet open smile she threw his way made something flip in his chest. _I do more than kiss on a first date._

Mason stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and smirked, suddenly having all the motivation he needed to make sure this date, however fake it was, went off without a hitch.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for the Wayhaven Week 2020 fandom event's "mend" prompt. Semi-Book 2 spoilerish? Take a hike in the woods, they said. It'll be fun, they said. Worst. Date. Ever.

There was something to be said about a warm shower after being soaked to the bone from getting caught in the rain. Zoe curled up in her bed at the Warehouse, the duvet draped over her shoulders like a cape, and concentrated on the material in her hands. Rain still pounded against the windows, but she was grateful to be indoors instead of out in it. **  
**

There was a sharp knock on her door and she turned her head in time to see Mason come in, a mug of something in his hands. “Thought you might need it,” he offered, handing it out to her.

She took a deep inhale, enjoying the scent of freshly brewed coffee as the warmth of the mug seeped into her hands. “Thanks.” She pat the side of the bed. “There’s room enough for two over here, you know.”

Mason smirked, but didn’t hesitate to slide into bed with her. “Just can’t wait to get me in bed with you, could you, Sweetheart?”

Zoe rolled her eyes and set the mug on the bedside table to concentrate on what she had been doing. “That is _such_ a tired line, Sunshine.”

“And yet it still manages to work.” He rested his chin on her shoulder and looked down at the material in her lap. “Is that my shirt?”

“Yeah.”

“What are you doing with it?”

She held up the needle and thread. “Well,” she started, continuing to stitch as she talked, “you have a hole in your shirt where a hole doesn’t belong and I’m patching it up for you.”

“Didn’t know you knew how to sew.”

“Brace yourself: I also know how to embroider.” She smiled at his soft snort of laughter, his arms casually draping around her to bring her back flush to his chest, his legs bracketing her hips. “You should check out my Etsy shop.”

“I really don’t see you as the type to do those _Live, Laugh, Love_ or _Home Sweet Home_ type samplers.”

“No, but do you see me being the type to do elaborately done flowers surrounding _Fuck this Shit_ or _Don’t be a Dick_ on it?”

His arms tightened around her waist. “Yeah. Yeah, I _totally_ see something like that coming from you.” He silently watched as the long gash on his shirt’s sleeve was mended, Zoe making stitches so small that he had a hard time trying to see where it had been cut in the first place. “I’m okay.”

She froze, hands reaching for the travel sized pair of scissors in her mini-sewing kit she had brought along with her in an overnight bag once that had managed to just eventually stay at the Warehouse. “I know you are.” Her fingers smoothed over the mended material. It was drying, but she had scrubbed the sleeve to make sure she got all his blood off before she started sewing. “Why wouldn’t you be?” She closed her eyes, desperately trying to tamp down on the fear that had seized her earlier that evening, Mason's arms wrapping a little tighter around her in response. She and Mason had been on patrol on the outskirts of town, following up on a tip that some leftover Trappers had made a temporary base of operations somewhere in one of the many abandoned industrial buildings that dotted the countryside. It was supposed to be a quick reconnaissance only mission, just observe and take note of their whereabouts and then report back so the entire unit could go neutralize them.

And the evening had been incredibly quiet too. The two of them had made their usual banter as they hiked, but Zoe had stopped to simply enjoy the peaceful look on Mason’s face the further they got from town. 

And then the bottom had dropped out of the sky. It had looked like rain all day long, but then again, it had looked like rain for the past week without anything to speak of, so neither of them had expected the sudden thunderstorm to hit. Luckily, they had been close to the old abandoned steelworks that hadn’t seen anyone in it since probably the seventies. Zoe’s foot had slipped in the softening dirt and while she had wrenched her ankle pretty badly, at least Mason had saved her from a face full of mud by catching her and slinging her over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes as he sprinted the last few feet towards shelter.

Unfortunately, they hadn’t been the only ones to find the steelworks. Zoe was hopping on one foot while cursing her ankle when she realized that Mason had gone absolutely still, the sound of his warning snarl warring with the rumbling thunder outside. She’d barely had a second to unholster the Volt from her hip before the Trappers they’d accidentally discovered attacked. Luckily, even as outnumbered as they were, they’d had the slight advantage of being on their feet where most of the Trappers had been seated around a makeshift fire. Mason had made quick work of most of them while Zoe had taken down her share, adrenaline making her forget about her twisted ankle.

She had been in the middle of cuffing the unconscious Trappers with their own supply of zip ties when she noticed Mason inspecting his forearm, his free hand digging into his back pocket for a cigarette before realizing that the rain had ruined what was left in the pack. She wouldn’t have said anything, except she happened to catch the way blood dripped down his arm to spatter on the dusty concrete at his feet. She’d hobbled to his side as fast as she could, hands ready to rip her own shirt to act as a makeshift bandage before Mason had shoved his sleeve up to his elbow, showing her that while the skin underneath was bloody, it was whole.

One quick phone call to Adam had the rest of Unit Bravo, accompanied by several other agents to transport their quarry, at their location within minutes. She’d protested, but Mason hadn’t listened to her as he scooped her up in his arms and settled her into the back of the SUV Adam had been driving. To his credit, he hadn’t argued when she plucked the cigarette from his lips that he had lit from the pack he found in the back seat console to smoke for herself, he merely sparked up a second one and reached out to grab her foot and keep it elevated on his lap for the remainder of the ride back to the Warehouse.

The debriefing had been quick, both of them tired of being soaked to the skin and their replies snippier than they probably both meant for them to be. Blessedly, Nate had been the one to suggest calling it a night, seeing that they had gotten enough details for a preliminary report and they’d get back to it after a change of clothes and a good night’s sleep. For her part, Zoe had shot Adam an apologetic glance before limping towards her room. There was a silent _sorry for being grouchy_ that was left unsaid between them, but she felt better when he sighed, his shoulders dropping slightly and his eyes softening as he nodded in understanding.

Mason had surprisingly left her alone to shower once he was satisfied that she was able to put weight on her ankle and move around by herself. Luckily it hadn’t swelled much and after using a wrap from the first aid kit she found underneath the bathroom sink, felt a lot better than it had earlier.

“At least no one died this time,” Mason told her, his mouth muffled by her shoulder and bringing her back to the present.

“No one died the _last_ time,” she countered, turning her head to look at him. “Though you came damn close.”

“Still here, aren’t I?” He held her closer, his chin nudging her oversized shirt’s neckline out of the way so he could press a kiss to her exposed shoulder, then another to the side of her neck. “You can’t let one time get to you.”

She exhaled. “I know. Letting things get to me means I become a liability.” She frowned. “But I _didn’t_ freeze.” In the moment, she had channeled all her fear at the possibility of Mason making a repeat performance of being overwhelmed with no one around to help them into pure rage, attacking hard and fast so the Trappers wouldn’t have an opportunity to hurt him.

“No, you didn’t.” There was a thread of pride in his voice as he shifted closer. “You did good, Zo.”

“You weren’t too shabby yourself, Mason.” She held up his finished shirt. “Even if you _did_ get tagged in the end.”

He made a dismissive noise against her skin. “Better me than you. At least I heal up without needing stitches.” Mason reached out and took the shirt from her hands. “Damn, this is good work.”

“You think? I tried to make the stitches small so you wouldn’t feel them against your arm.”

Mason put his hand into the mended sleeve and try as he might, he couldn’t even tell where the rip had happened. “Can’t feel a thing. I wish we’d teamed up earlier, you could have saved a bunch of my clothes from getting trashed after missions.”

Zoe rolled her eyes. “Well, I can’t have that. You look damn hot in this shirt.” She moved so she could set her sewing materials on the nightstand next to the now-abandoned mug of coffee. “Though you look damn hot _out_ of it too.”

Mason chuckled. “You flirting with me, Sweetheart?”

“Fucking trying to, Sunshine.” Zoe laughed when Mason tumbled them both across the bed, somehow pulling the duvet out from between them in the process. He grinned against her mouth as she tangled her hands in his hair and it wasn’t long before the two of them were lost in the other, the thunder and rain outside muting the world around them.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After school snacks lead to serious and not-so serious talks about things.

“ _ Really _ ?” 

Mason looked up from where he was perched at the edge of Zoe’s desk, cigarette in hand. “What?”

She tipped her head to the side and pointedly stared at the  _ No Smoking  _ sign in her office. Someone - Felix most likely - had added a brightly colored sticky note with  _ That Means You Mason _ written on it. There was a loopy heart scribbled at the very end of the note. “I thought we were done going over the office rules months ago.”

He rolled his eyes, but he did stuff the unlit cigarette back into the slightly beaten up pack he carried with him at all times. “I don’t get it,” he grumbled. “You ride my ass about smoking and yet you do the same thing.”

She rolled her eyes back at him. “I ride your ass about smoking  _ here _ , specifically. You know I don’t care about anywhere else.” She went back to typing up the report she had been working on. “And for the record, I stopped smoking anywhere near work over two years ago.”

Mason opened his mouth to ask her why when there was a knock on her office door. They both looked over in time to see Eric at the door. “Hey! Long time no see!” 

Zoe instantly brightened. “Hey you! What brings you to my neck of the woods?”

Eric balanced Lacey on his hip and sighed. “Lacey’s regular checkup got rescheduled at the last minute. We’ve got about fifteen minutes to get to the doctor’s office for her appointment.”

“And you need someplace to leave Cara?” She chuckled, knowing Cara’s tendency to not sit still in one place for any given moment. Focusing on one daughter didn’t leave Eric room to corral his eldest.

He nodded. “Tina has Cara occupied right now. I was going to go down to Sol’s office and see if he was free to leave a little early.”

Zoe winced. “The last I heard, he was going to be on a video conference with the hospital for the rest of the afternoon. Something about discussing the disease he was helping them with.” What she didn’t add was that the mysterious disease had baffled both doctors and Verda alike with the way it had seemingly cleared up in all hospitalized patients at almost the same exact time.  _ I don’t get it, Zo, _ Verda had told her over coffee one afternoon.  _ It’s like, I don’t know,  _ magic  _ or something. _

If only he knew how close to the mark he really was.

“Aw, damn.”

She stood up and rounded her desk. “However,” she started, bending to give Lacey a brief kiss on the cheek. “You’re in luck. I may not be able to get away from the station, but Cara is more than welcome to hang out in my office until Verda can go home.”

He gave her a relieved smile. “Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude…” He gave a pointed look at Mason, who hadn’t moved from his spot atop her desk.

Zoe looked over her shoulder. Mason shrugged at her as if he didn’t have an issue with it, picking up a pen and twirling it in his fingers like she’d seen him do with cigarettes on multiple occasions. “I wouldn’t have offered otherwise. Besides, you know your kids are my favorite people to hang out with.”

Mason watched as Zoe walked out with Eric and made her way to Tina’s desk. He couldn’t help but crack a smile as she crouched down and gave Cara a huge hug, one of her hands reaching up to brush at a few strands of dark hair that had escaped her ponytail during the course of the day out of her face. His eyes followed and his hands itched to sink into the soft mass. It’d been over a week since she’d been at his bedside and his lips tingled as he remembered the soft, intimate way she had kissed him, her forehead resting against his and her hands cradling his cheek.

He hadn’t kissed her since, and honestly, he was still out of sorts about it. Heat and passion he knew how to handle, but seeing the worried look on her face and hearing how she had reacted while he had been knocked out cold did something to his heart that he didn’t know how to handle. Even their usual banter at that moment had been tinged with something that went deeper than the no-strings attachment they’d both agreed upon.

It was new territory and he was unsure how to proceed.

“So, looks like you’re in luck,” Zoe said, holding open the door to her office and ushering Cara inside. “You get to hang out with the cool people this afternoon. You remember Mason, right?”

Cara looked up at him and gave a slight nod. “You’re the angry one from before.”

His eyes looked towards Zoe as she snorted and got Cara settled at the round table at the far wall of her office. “Not  _ all _ the time,” he said defensively. “I’m not angry today.”

“That’s good,” Cara said, picking out a worksheet from the stack that Zoe had taken out of her pastel colored backpack. “My teacher says it’s okay to be angry, but it’s better to talk to a grownup about what’s bothering you. Do you have a grownup to talk to when you’re mad?”

Mason’s eyes flicked over to Zoe, who had rounded her desk to get back to her laptop report. “Yeah, maybe.”

Cara made a noise of approval before pulling out a few crayons to color in her paper. For a kid who had a history of being hyperactive the few times he’d interacted with her, Mason noted that she took great care to make sure she stayed within the lines of the apple she was coloring, even if she chose to color it a vivid purple and blue.

The three of them fell into a companionable silence, broken only by Cara’s crayons scratching the paper’s surface and Zoe’s fingers softly clacking against her keys. Every so often Cara would tell them something that happened during the day or share a story about a classmate, which Zoe would give her full attention to and ask engaging questions. Surprisingly, Mason found himself doing much the same, abandoning his perch at the edge of Zoe’s desk to lean against the window frame closer to Cara.

“Message for you, Zoe.”

Mason’s head snapped up from where he had been subtly helping explain how to subtract five from seven and he couldn’t stop the scowl that turned his lips down at the sight of Douglas leaning against the door frame to Zoe’s office with what was probably meant to be a smoldering look but came off as suffering from slight indigestion. It was amusing at first, but for some reason it really felt like nails on a chalkboard whenever he was around Douglas for any given moment of time. Zoe had set boundaries and had clearly told him that whatever...crush he had on her was that it was clearly one-sided and nothing was ever going to come of it.

Apparently, that message still hadn't sunk into the boy's head just yet.

“Can it wait? I’m tying up some loose ends.”

“Sorry, they were rather insistent. Do you want me to transfer them to your office, or…?”

Zoe shook her head and rose from her chair. “No, that’s okay, I’ll head over there. Give me a few seconds to save my progress?”

Douglas winked at her and Mason’s hackles went up. “Anything for you, Zo.”

Zoe went over to Cara’s table and put her hands on her hips. “I’m going to take this call, do you think the two of you will be okay alone together until I get back?”

Mason rolled his eyes. “You’re going to be gone for maybe ten minutes, I think we’ll be okay until then.” He gave a wolfish grin. “That is, unless Cara gets a wild hair and decides to burn the place down.”

Cara looked up from her homework. “Hey!” 

He held his hands up defensively. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” Nudging his chin towards the door, he looked at Douglas, who had gone back to his desk but was sitting in his chair and looking expectantly at Zoe through the glass partition. “You’d better get going, Zo. He may have to bring reinforcements if you stick around too long.”

She shook her head. “Behave.”

“Never.” 

“And no candy! Verda gave me a talk about giving extra sweets to his kids this close to dinnertime.”

“We’ll be on our best behavior, we promise.” He watched as Zoe left, taking the phone from Douglas and giving him a small nod of thanks, before turning his attention back to Cara. He hadn’t wanted to crowd Zoe as she worked, but now that it was just the two of them there, he made his way back to his usual perch at a side table, crossing his arms in front of him as he looked out the window.

Scented markers, especially ones in fake, synthetic scents, should be outlawed. He had half a mind to open the window to air out the office, but then thought better of it when he saw the lawn service moving around outside. They weren’t quite at the window, but he really didn’t want to add in the droning noise from the weed eater into the mix or the smell of freshly cut grass.

He stifled a grumble and fought the urge to grab one of his cigarettes. Zoe would murder him if he sparked up in front of her honorary niece. Besides, there was a slight rattle in the young girl’s lungs that made him wonder if something was wrong with her. She looked healthy enough, but every other inhalation had the tiniest bit of a wheeze to it.

Mason shook the thought away when he caught the not so quiet rumble from Cara’s stomach. “Hey kid,” he said, turning to look at her. “When was the last time you ate something?”

Cara shrugged. “Lunchtime, maybe?”

“You hungry?” She chewed at her lip before nodding. “Then come on, I think I can find you something to tide you over until your dad can take you home for dinner.” Mason got up from his seat and there was the briefest of pauses before he took a breath and held out his hand. Zoe probably wouldn’t like it if he wound up getting Cara lost within the confines of the station and he wasn’t about to go through that sort of headache. A few minutes of discomfort of her tiny hand in his would be fine.

“Okay, so what sort of snacks do we have here?” Mason flicked on the light to the staff break room. Looking through the fridge, he curled his lip at some of the items. “Lemme see, health food, granola, a science experiment that’s gonna grow legs…”

Cara mirrored his expression from her seat at the break room table. “Bleah!”

“You said it, kid.” He opened a crisper drawer and pulled out a clear plastic container holding sliced strawberries. “These are Zoe’s, so I’m betting they’re pretty safe. Now, something else, something carby…” There was a bag of bagels right next to the strawberries, so he took a chance that they belonged to Zoe as well. As an afterthought, he grabbed the nearby container of cream cheese.

“Dad puts cinnamon and sugar on my toast in the morning.”

Mason pushed down the lever to the toaster and leaned against the counter. “Yeah? I don’t see any here, but is this cool with you?”

Cara nodded, but her eyes strayed towards the vending machine. 

Mason followed them and narrowed his own eyes. “Zoe said no candy.”

She sighed. “I know.”

He smirked at the defeated huff of air. “But Zoe’s not here right now, is she?” Cara instantly brightened and his smirk grew into a small smile. “This can be our little secret, okay?” The smell of the bagels toasting made his nose twitch, but he leaned against the vending machine. Two light taps with his elbow and a kick with his foot later, a smaller sized candy bar fell from its moorings. 

“This should hold you over until I can get this set up.” Mason turned in time to catch the bagels as they popped up from the toaster. A little digging around found a butter knife that he used to spread a fair amount of cheesecake flavored cream cheese and then set a layer of sliced strawberries on top of one half.

“No sugar?”

Mason raised an eyebrow at Cara’s question. “Don’t you think that you’ve had enough sugar, kiddo?” His eyebrow raised a little higher when he realized she had already demolished the candy bar and had put the wrapper into the nearby trash can. Shrugging, he reasoned that Cara wasn’t his kid and he wouldn’t have to deal with the fallout of a sugar rush. Plucking out a packet of sugar from the caddy by the coffee pot, he tore it open and sprinkled it on top of one of the strawberries.

“Okay, this just looks weird,” he told her, setting the bagel half in front of her. “Wait a minute, let me get one more thing.” Inspiration struck and he turned again to the cutlery drawer where he found a metal spoon. Digging in his pocket for his lighter, he flicked it on and concentrated on evenly heating the spoon. 

“Woah,” Cara said, watching as she climbed into a chair at the break room table, her elbows on the surface and her chin resting in her hands.

“Don’t try this at home, Kid.” So it wasn’t quite like setting a torch to sugar, but a metal spoon repeatedly heated did sort of give the same effect as that crème brûlée that Nate had made one time. Apparently, even the crudest of efforts was enough to entertain a five year old, and he presented the finished thing to her with a flourish. 

“Good?” He asked, putting his lighter back into his pocket.

Cara nodded enthusiastically, making appreciative noises as she took a big bite.

“Oh hey, there you two are.” Mason looked up from where he had boosted himself on the countertop to see Verda in the doorway. “I hope she wasn’t a bother.”

“Nah,” Mason told him, waving off any concern. “She’s a good kid. Zoe should be around somewhere, she had to take a call. If you want, I can go grab her stuff for you while she finishes her snack.”

Verda shook his head. “No, you’ve done enough. I appreciate you helping to watch her while I was on that conference call.” He smiled fondly at his daughter. “I’ll grab your things and then we’ll head home. How does stopping by the bakery for some of Miss Haley’s fresh bread sound? Think it would make a good addition to dinner?”

Cara sat up straighter. “Are we having spaghetti?”

“Yes, it’s Thursday Pasta Night. Your sister gets to pick the pasta and you get to pick the sauce, remember?”

Mason swung his leg around idly from his perch on the counter before hopping off and starting to put away the bag of bagels and things he had taken out of the fridge. He stopped for a second before spreading a layer of cream cheese on the other side of the bagel he hadn’t prepared for Cara, figuring that the entire thing would have been too much for an afternoon snack. Zoe hadn't eaten all day, deciding against taking a lunch break in favor of working on some extra stuff that had piled up while she had been busy with the carnival case.

“That call took forever,” Zoe said, coming into the break room and running a hand over her face to hide a yawn. “And it wasn’t even an interesting call.”

“Ugh.” Cara held up the last bit of bagel that she hadn’t finished eating. “Look what Mister Mason made for me! It’s so pretty!”

“I sort of raided your fridge and stole some of your stuff.”

Zoe grinned. “I’m impressed, there’s not much in there that would have made a healthy snack.” She looked at the two of them. “Did you buy her anything out of the vending machine while I was gone?”

He blinked at her as innocently as he knew how. “Nope. I didn’t have any money on me to buy anything.”

She looked between the two of them suspiciously before shrugging and letting it go. “There’s something fishy going on between you two, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

“He didn’t _buy_ me anything, promise!” Cara said, crossing her finger over her heart and leaving a tiny smear of pink cream cheese in her wake.

Mason smirked.  _ I’m starting to like that kid. _

Verda came in a few moments later, Cara’s backpack slung over one shoulder. “Ready to go?”

“Yes!”

“And what do we tell the nice people?”

She beamed before launching herself at Zoe. “Thank you, Aunt Zoe!” Mason froze and lifted his arms up out of the way as Cara wrapped her skinny arms around his waist. “Thank you, Mister Mason!”

He reached down and awkwardly pat the top of her head. “No problem, Half Pint.”

Zoe came up to him and leaned against the counter. “She doesn’t give hugs that easily. I think she likes you.”

“Yeah, well she’s a good kid.”

“I know, I love her like she was my own.”

He looked at her funny before hopping back up on the counter. “You ever think about having kids of your own someday?”

Zoe shook her head. “Not in the cards. I…” she frowned, crossing her arms in front of her and holding onto her elbows. “I don’t want a repeat of what I went through. No kid should have that shitty of a childhood.”

Mason didn’t say anything, but he knew exactly what she was talking about. Absentee mother, a revolving door of sitters, angry words thrown around because even bad attention was some sort of attention. Reaching over, he held up the last half of the bagel. “It’s been a long afternoon. Could I tempt you with a snack?”

She visibly relaxed, grateful that he was willing to change the subject. “Are you talking about the food or yourself?”

He threw her a wolfish smirk. “Why not both?” He ran his finger through the cream cheese and offered it to her. “I’m not one for strawberry, but I wonder what this would taste like if I licked it off you.”

Zoe gave a throaty laugh and quickly looked behind her to make sure that none of her co-workers were in the area before leaning forward and taking his offered finger in her mouth. She smiled around the digit as she watched his eyes darken, his pupils expanding to leave a thin ring of silver around them. “Maybe we wrap this to go and take it back to my place,” she offered, running a hand over his thigh to rest atop his knee.

“Sounds like a plan, Sweetheart.” He followed her out of the break room and back into her office, purposely keeping as close behind her as he could without the two of them tripping on the other’s legs. “Is there something wrong with Cara?” he asked, noticing that Verda had accidentally missed a crayon that had rolled under the table his daughter had been sitting at.

Zoe logged back into her laptop so she could start shutting it down. “What do you mean?”

“Kid had a wheeze.”

She looked up, her face going from flirty to serious in a split second. “How bad?”

He shrugged. “Not bad. It was really faint, she probably didn’t even notice it herself.”

Zoe took a relieved breath. “Oh, good.” Grabbing her purse and her jacket from the little closet in her office, she motioned for Mason to flip off the light. “Cara has frequent asthma attacks. They’re especially triggered by smoke. The last one she had sent her to the hospital.”

Dawning realization hit him. “You stopped smoking at the office because Verda would hang out with you and his clothes would pick it up, setting her off.”

“Yeah. And sometimes I’d run into her after work, so  _ my _ clothes would smell like smoke too. I can’t risk her not being able to breathe just because of my bad habit, which is why I quit.”

He held open the door for her, ignoring the breathy  _ goodbye Detective! _ that Douglas had yelled out after them. “But you still smoke.”

“Not nearly as often and only when I’m stressed.” She frowned, pulling her jacket on as they walked. It had been a nice morning, so she had left her car at home. “I want to eventually quit for good, but we’ll see.”

He didn’t have to say anything to know that Zoe almost always lit up a cigarette whenever she dealt with her mother. He was in the middle of making a mental note to start carrying gum to offer her instead when he stopped. 

“What is it?”

Mason shook his head. Caring for someone he was sleeping with and actively thinking about ways to make their goals more attainable was a foreign concept. “Nothing. At least, nothing serious.” It was a lie, but she didn’t have to know that. Slipping his arm around her shoulders, he pulled her closer to him. “Just wondering about getting an afternoon snack in.”

Zoe laughed, stopping as they got closer to her apartment building. “What if I take you up on that snack offer and ask you to stay for dinner?”

“I wouldn’t say no, especially if dinner comes with dessert.”

She draped her arms around his shoulders and pressed herself close to his body. “Oh, dessert is  _ definitely  _ on the menu,” she purred.

Mason closed his eyes as Zoe kissed him, one of his hands going to her hip while the other buried itself in her hair like he’d wanted to all damn week. Yet instead of cranking up the heat right away like he always did, Mason gentled their kiss, trying to recapture the soft, intimate way she had kissed him last. He smiled against her lips when she sagged against him, a pleased little sigh escaping her.

“Then Sweetheart,” he said, nipping at her bottom lip with his teeth. “I’m starving.”


End file.
